Introduction

Hillsborough County, Florida, is at the forefront of the Nation's major metropolitan areas in the application of Asset Management principles.

Transportation Asset Management is a set of guiding principles and best practice methods for making informed transportation resource allocation decisions and improving accountability for these decisions. The term "resource allocation" covers not only allocation of money to program areas, projects, and activities, but also covers deployment of other resources that add value (staff, equipment, materials, information, real estate, etc.). Asset Management is policy-driven and performance-based, involves the analysis of options and tradeoffs, makes use of quality information, and monitors performance results to provide clear accountability and feedback. Economic analysis plays a critical role in Asset Management by facilitating tradeoff analysis, in which the net benefits of competing investment options are compared in terms of their "dollars and cents" impacts on the public.

Hillsborough County, Florida, is at the forefront of the Nation's major metropolitan areas in the application of Asset Management principles. It has implemented an active Asset Management program that inventories the location, condition, and dimensions of all roadway and stormwater infrastructure managed by its Public Works Department. Hillsborough County has strongly emphasized the use of economic analysis techniques in its Asset Management program.

FHWA's Office of Asset Management has therefore selected Hillsborough County as a case study for applications of economic analysis techniques in Asset Management. The Hillsborough County Public Works Department personnel represent an important national resource of expertise and practical experience in this area, and have been very active in promoting the application of Asset Management techniques to other local governments across the Nation. The following case study summarizes the department's experience, highlighting the prerequisites, process, and challenges of the successful implementation of an Asset Management system that incorporates economic analysis techniques.